Tag: Global

Singapore – Yahoo has announced the acquisition of Artifact, an AI-driven news aggregation and discovery platform. 

Yahoo completed the acquisition of Artifact on March 29, 2024 with co-founders CEO Kevin Systrom and CTO Mike Krieger, working as advisors for Yahoo during the transition.

In line with this, Artifact will no longer operate as a stand-alone application. In the following months, its in-house AI-powered customization algorithms and other features will be integrated into Yahoo’s network, which includes the Yahoo News app. 

Yahoo’s commitment to providing reliable news and information to its hundreds of millions of users globally is demonstrated by this initiative. It also advances their goal of offering a more tailored way for users to find news and information on a variety of devices. 

The AI-powered discovery engine at Artifact works by presenting information that fits users’ interests and gradually improving its comprehension of them. A tailored news feed that is pointing users toward stories they are interested in is the product of this process. 

In addition to curating material, Artifact provides a number of features that improve user experience, such as access to the most recent news, sharing options, clickbait detection tools, and more. By incorporating these features into the Yahoo portfolio, the opportunity to offer customers even more personalised and content experiences is enhanced.

Speaking about the acquisition, Kat Downs Mulder, SVP and general manager of Yahoo News, said, “Yahoo was one of the first to combine human and algorithmic curation of news. Since then, the landscape of machine learning and personalisation has changed dramatically and Artifact has innovated with best-in-class technology to meet the moment. Artifact has become a beloved product and we’re thrilled to be able to continue to grow that technology and further our mission of becoming the trusted guide to digital information and the best curator connecting people to the content that matters most to them.” 

Meanwhile, Kevin Systrom, CEO and co-founder of Artifact, stated, “We built an intuitive product experience that users love and has the opportunity to benefit millions of people. Yahoo brings the scale to help the product achieve what we envisioned while upholding the belief that connecting people to the trusted sources of news and information is as critical as ever. AI has allowed us to give users a better experience discovering great content they care about. Yahoo recognises that opportunity, and we could not be more excited to see what we’ve built live on through Yahoo News.” 

Sydney, Australia – StackAdapt, a multi-channel programmatic advertising platform, has announced the availability of Chinese language contextual advertising.

This program is aimed at marketers looking to engage with global audiences by browsing Chinese content.

Advertisers looking to target Chinese-language audiences in the US, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand will be able to take advantage of StackAdapt’s offering.

Three essential aspects for which the company has created Chinese-language advertising solutions are page context AI, keyword rule targeting, and browsing audiences. Advertisers will be able to tailor their messages to consumers who interact with material in Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as traditional and simplified Chinese. 

The Page Context AI technology enables advertisers to show native, display, and video adverts to people browsing websites that are related to a brand’s products. This patented technology works independently of cookies or other identifiers, providing an efficient targeting technique to engage relevant customers without requiring the processing of user data. 

Advertisers can target certain keywords and phrases that are relevant to their campaigns with the company’s keyword rule targeting service. With the help of this feature, advertisers may establish guidelines that guarantee their ads are paired with relevant content. Furthermore, marketers may focus their efforts on the audiences that are engaged with the help of the browsing audiences tool. 

Speaking about the launch, Liam McCarten, VP of sales APAC at StackAdapt, said, “We have widened the scope for audience targeting across the global web by creating a Chinese language contextual advertising offering. Our patented algorithm will automatically detect if you’ve input Traditional or Simplified Chinese, and will use the appropriate option for targeting. There is a major advantage for advertisers looking to target audiences consuming content in another language. Placing ads in the right context can drive a big boost in performance.” 

He added, “Our contextual products have reached a very high level of maturity, and we are pushing them even further to make our machine learning models even more powerful and predictive. The ability to offer Chinese language contextual advertising solutions will dramatically increase the consumer base for brands around the world. Contextual targeting is important as part of a toolkit of future-proofed marketing strategies.”

New York, USA – Ogilvy One announces new multiple global leadership and launches next-generation services targeted at cultivating more partnerships through purposeful design. Ogilvy uses a strategy to develop partnerships that deliver business, brand, and customer value, guided by creativity, powered by data, and augmented by AI.

Ogilvy One has named Kent Wertime as its global CEO. Roberto Fara continues to serve as Ogilvy Spain’s chief creative officer in addition to taking on a larger role as Ogilvy One’s global creative experience lead. Other notable hires include Mauro Caggiano (LATAM), Jason Davey (AUNZ), Ravi Pal (CTO), Ab Gaur (APAC & CEO of Verticurl; global chief data & tech officer, Ogilvy), Rajesh Midha (NoAm), and Clare Lawson (EMEA & chief client officer). 

Wertime has been with Ogilvy for almost 25 years. He led Ogilvy One in Asia before moving on to take on various leadership positions. He will continue to serve in his current role as Ogilvy APAC’s co-CEO. 

Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy, said, “When David Ogilvy first started talking about direct marketing decades ago, he recognized that some of the most effective marketing isn’t just directed at your target audience, it speaks to them on a personal one-to-one basis. Now we take that to a new level with a fresh leadership team for Ogilvy One and a commitment to designing relationships based on ideas that create enduring value exchanges between consumers and our clients’ brands.” 

Speaking about his appointment, Wertime said, “Over the last decade, companies invested heavy in technology, but that alone is not the solution. In today’s hyper-commoditized world, brands need to design relationships that create differentiation and relevancy with their consumers. That’s where the exponential power of creativity plays a vital role.” 

He added, “Today’s consumers, choose their points of interaction with brands, from discovery to purchase, and dictate more of the relationship. With a deep understanding of brands and full dimensional view of consumers coupled with award-winning creativity and a strong data and technology backbone, Ogilvy One is uniquely positioned to design valuable relationships for brands that are impactful, relevant, and enduring.”

Hong Kong – International health and beauty retailer AS Watson has announced that it is the first to sign the Women’s Empowerment Principles. These principles are part of a global campaign spearheaded by UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment), which aims to promote gender equity and female empowerment.

With this action, AS Watson reaffirms its dedication to fostering an inclusive workplace, marketplace, and community that offers opportunities for women in support of this cause. 

Through its collaboration with Operation Smile in the Women in Medicine initiative, AS Watson displays its dedication to women’s empowerment. Through educational opportunities and specialised training, this project enables women working in the medical and healthcare sectors, paving the way for them to become world leaders in the fields of surgery, medicine, and healthcare. 

In keeping with International Women’s Day’s “Inspire Inclusion” theme, AS Watson and its 12 retail brands, which operate in 28 markets, will launch a series of customer- and employee-focused initiatives aimed at empowering women. 

To further support women in embracing their true selves, Watsons will launch the “Our Time is Now” campaign on International Women’s Day. Watsons will actively participate in a number of community-based events this month. 

Watsons is extending their support for self-financed women’s empowerment services to young mothers, married women, and older women by sponsoring the YWCA’s “ChariTea” program in Hong Kong. 

Watsons Thailand will, in the meanwhile, be in charge of the “Green Ribbon” campaign, which will encourage women to reach their full potential and donate all earnings to the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women, which supports women and children who are suffering from mental and physical health problems. 

Superdrug intends to promote female-founded health and beauty products in its European stores and organise a number of initiatives, including podcasts and a picture contest, to empower its female staff members. In order to promote confidence and beauty in women’s life, Drogas will host the Ladies’ School event and provide skincare and makeup guidance. Aiming to motivate its female employees to realise their full potential, The Perfume Shop has assembled a collection of motivational movies. 

Speaking about the campaign, Malina Ngai, CEO of AS Watson Asia and Europe, said, “At AS Watson, we are dedicated to empowering women to be more beautiful and confident. With over 80% of our 160 million members and over 70% of our 130,000 colleagues being women, our top priority is to inspire and support every woman to become the best version of themselves.” 

She added, “We are also proud to create an inclusive work culture where women are valued and offered equal opportunities for career growth. AS Watson aspires to leverage our scale for good and inspire every woman to radiate beauty from the inside out. We believe in The New Beautiful – a new kind of beauty that exists within everyone.” 

Furthermore, Ngai emphasised, “We believe that empowering women is not only our responsibility, but also our passion for creating a world with equality and inclusion, where every one’s uniqueness is recognised and valued. We cannot achieve it alone, so we will continue to advocate women empowerment and encourage more customers, colleagues and business partners to join us in contributing to a better world.”

Canada – While digital out-of-home (DOOH) has taken centre stage in recent years, static OOH continues to be in high demand. Currently, static OOH accounts for around 70% of the current OOH market inventory. This is according to the latest report from Broadsign, putting focus on critical insights into the current and future problems and possibilities in the OOH sector.

Even though static OOH has been successful in the digital age, most participants expressed that procedures for OOH are excessively complicated and hinder productivity. Only 17% of respondents said their teams ran well, and almost 50% said there was a serious need to improve workflow.

Additionally, 53% of respondents cited operational inefficiencies as a barrier to competition. According to participant input, improving OOH’s share of advertising revenue in the upcoming years will depend heavily on the modernization of static technologies and procedures.

Emerging technologies are opening up new prospects in the static OOH sector. These include automation tools, data, and analytics solutions. Interviewees for the report expressed a rising focus on data and analytics, along with real-time technology insights regarding inventory availability. 87% of respondents said their organisations would benefit significantly from adding greater automation to their processes.

When asked which trends or technologies they believed would have the biggest impact on the expansion of the industry going forward, 59% of respondents named data-driven targeting, and 47% named data measurement and attribution. 

The report’s participants prioritised sustainability, with many expressing their aim to implement more sustainable business practices in order to achieve carbon neutrality in the future. Approximately 64% of the participants had already pledged to decrease their carbon footprint, and 17% indicated that they intended to introduce sustainable practices. 

In terms of ongoing initiatives, 56% of participants were using energy-efficient LEDs for signage, 33% were using recycled materials, and 48% were recycling or donating vinyl after the campaign. 

More than 125 OOH professionals from 60 different companies throughout the world contributed to the report’s compilation. With screen counts ranging from a few hundred to thousands, organisations running hybrid static/digital networks accounted for almost two-thirds of the participants. 

Speaking about the report, Catherine Lee, Broadsign product marketing specialist, said, “Static is going to continue playing an essential role in the OOH market for the foreseeable future, but as more screens go digital, adapting with the times will be vital. To this end, there is more work to be done to automate the tools and processes used across the industry and reduce static OOH’s carbon footprint.” 

She added, “Our report findings not only reinforce these challenges, but point toward an optimistic future for the industry should it work together to evolve and overcome them. We’re excited to reveal our findings to the community and hope they’ll inspire conversions that drive change.”

USA – Lotame, a technology business dedicated to improving customer data for digital marketers, has renewed its commitment to promoting data cooperation by introducing Lotame Collaborate. 

Lotame Collaborate, available through Spherical, is an end-to-end data collaboration platform that allows media owners and digital marketers to leverage first-party data within their businesses and with partners. The platform recognizes changing privacy regulations and provides digital marketers with data portability, analysis capabilities, and activation options. 

Data collaboration platforms address growing concerns about security and privacy by providing safe spaces for data exchange. As the need for third-party cookies decreases, media owners and digital marketers are using cooperative tactics to augment the volume and usefulness of their data. 

Additionally, businesses need to use data to understand and meet the expectations of customers who are looking for better online experiences. In order to help brands adapt and thrive in this changing environment, data collaboration platforms like Spherical are useful in this regard. 

Within its platform, Lotame Collaborate makes it easier for many parties to share permissioned data. Lotame Collaborate meets a business’s needs for enhancing, evaluating, and activating first-party data with outside partners, as opposed to data clean rooms. Furthermore, it allows marketers to combine non-authenticated (web visitors) and authenticated (logged-in) data, possibly tenfold increasing the availability of data for analysis and scalable activation. Currently, Lotame users worldwide can access Lotame Collaborate. 

Speaking about the launch, Andy Monfried, CEO at Lotame, said, “Data collaboration is table stakes today. Unfortunately, fragmented data sets, non-interoperable platforms, and constantly evolving privacy standards have stalled the industry’s ability to deliver on true data enablement and collaboration. With our new offering in Spherical, which we believe is the industry’s most intuitive, interoperable, and high-performing data collaboration platform, we are making data collaboration smarter, faster, and easier than ever.” 

Meanwhile, Jo Mackenzie, head of data solutions, Publicis Media APAC, stated, “First-party data sharing opens up more opportunities to generate meaningful insights and to leverage each marketing touch point for real brand-building impact. Evaluating and testing innovative technologies like clean rooms and data collaboration are critical to delivering cutting-edge, data-driven solutions for our clients, so we’re excited to leverage this new offering as an extension of our existing intelligence suite.”

Singapore – Customer service software company Zendesk has announced that it has completed its acquisition of AI-powered quality management platform Klaus, following its initial announcement back in January.

The acquisition of Klaus is the latest addition to the company’s existing workforce engagement management solutions which includes ‘Tymeshift’, a modern workforce management tool built exclusively for Zendesk.

With digital agents resolving more service inquiries without human interaction, having a QA solution that analyses both human and digital agent performance is crucial to maintaining quality control and providing enhanced customer service.

Taking this role, Klaus pinpoints conversations with positive or negative sentiment, identifies outliers, churn risk, escalations and follow-ups across all conversations – even those done by outsourced teams.

It also spots knowledge gaps and coaching opportunities that can be used to improve agent performance and productivity, all of which results in higher customer satisfaction.

Talking about the acquisition, Adrian McDermott, chief technology officer at Zendesk, said, “With Klaus as part of our WEM portfolio, we can empower businesses with the best AI-powered automated quality assurance in the market. By automatically assessing support using AI to pinpoint and fix gaps, AutoQA gives businesses 100 percent coverage of their customer conversations and a clear view of opportunities to improve, while removing the burden of manual review.”

Meanwhile, Kair Käsper, co-founder of Klaus, commented, “While most QA software can only score up to 5 percent of CX interactions, Klaus automates QA across 100 percent of customer support interactions. It uses AI to identify patterns, predict issues and suggest solutions making it a vital tool that improves service quality, enriches the customer experience, and ultimately enhances the reputation and success of the organisation.”

Singapore – In a world of accelerated uncertainty, the future of customer experience(CX) innovation will be driven by brands that go beyond mere transactional interactions, focusing instead on creating relationship-based experiences that align with delivering customer value and fulfilling trusted customer preferences to achieve business goals.

That being said, this shift in innovation is brought about by digital-native customers today who are demanding greater value, more memorable and immersive experiences, as well as greater control over how they engage with brands, becoming equal stakeholders in the CX ecosystem.

To help navigate through this phenomenon, global cloud communications platform Infobip, with market intelligence firm IDC, have teamed up with MARKETECH APAC to present the report, ‘Revolutionizing Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce’, providing guidance to marketers and brands on how to get started and accelerate the journey towards customer-centric business resilience.

‘Revolutionizing Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce’ discusses the rising role of conversational commerce and omnichannel communication platforms in delivering a superior and contextualised customer experience throughout the APAC region.

The report highlights the value of conversational commerce in customer-centricity by giving readers an overview of its significance, showcasing how the future of CX is efficiently redefined through fostering meaningful engagements by using methods such as leveraging conversational mediums and communication platform as a service(CPaaS), showing examples of its use and effectiveness in the current industry.

Furthermore, the report also gives insights as to how marketers and brands can future proof their business through current and future advancements in conversational commerce, as well as the right standards for choosing a partner to embark with on the conversational commerce journey.

Lastly, several touchpoints for the utilisation of conversational commerce are explored geographically across APAC, displaying the industries encompassed as well as its nature of use across different markets in the region.

Teddy Cambosa, regional editor at MARKETECH APAC, said, “As businesses navigate the digital realm, the art of meaningful conversation becomes the brushstroke that paints lasting impressions. In the canvas of customer experience, the brush of dialogue not only shapes transactions but also crafts relationships. In this ever-changing business landscape like this, this report offers actionable insights for businesses to recognise the power of conversational commerce, which in turn paints a portrait of personalised service, resonates in the hearts of customers, and creates a masterpiece of loyalty and satisfaction.”

To access the report, you may download ‘Revolutionizing Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce’ here.

USA – VML is promoting Jeff Geheb as its new global executive lead for VML Enterprise Solutions. This appointment will come in addition to his present position as global chief experience officer. The transition will take effect immediately.

As the global executive lead for Enterprise Solutions, Geheb will oversee the growth and administration of VML’s line of Enterprise Solutions. global consulting, data, technology, and innovation services, businesses, and goods are all included in this. Geheb and Neil Stewart have created Enterprise Solutions, a recently launched VML product. 

Neil Stewart, on the other hand, will take on a new role as CEO of WPP Open within WPP. 

Since Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R announced their merger late last year, Geheb and Stewart have developed a working relationship. They will continue to work closely together as they adjust to their new positions and set up VML’s worldwide Enterprise Solutions management framework. 

Leading the charge in the global expansion of the customer experience (CX) profession, Geheb has been a key figure in VML. With a staff of over 700 professionals skilled in CX consulting, product and service innovation, digital ecosystems, data and customization, technology modernization, CRM, and loyalty program design, the business has grown under his direction. 

Speaking about the promotion, Jon Cook, global CEO at VML, expressed, “I’m thrilled that our organisation has a talent like Jeff leading these critical offerings for the new VML. It’s a major undertaking and Jeff is the perfect person to bring

continuity and integration to all that we have to offer to our client partners. The depth of VML Enterprise Solutions is a great differentiator for VML, especially after all Jeff and Neil brought together from legacy VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson as a new offering.” 

He added, “When you combine Jeff’s leadership across Enterprise Solutions and our Customer Experience practice, it deepens the connectivity of VML even further.” 

Meanwhile, Mel Edwards, global president of VML, commented, “Neil has been a phenomenal leader for our business, driving the growth of our technology, data, and platform expertise for over 13 years. His continued close partnership with Jeff in growing and strengthening our Enterprise Solutions offering will be paramount to VML’s evolution.” 

Speaking about his promotion, Geheb said, “The potential of the unparalleled mix of technology and creative talent that is coming together under VML will be transformative for our clients and our industry. VML Enterprise Solutions gives us a flexible model to both power VML’s Brand Experience, Commerce, and Customer Experience practices and work directly with technology and digital leaders to find solutions for their most complex business challenges — that potential is exciting for me.” 

“Neil has been a tremendous thought partner and friend, and we will continue to work closely together as WPP Open and VML into the future,” Geheb added. 

Singapore – Global unified adtech platform Nexxen has recently announced the appointment of Gretchen Johnson as chief people officer.

In her new role, Johnson will lead Nexxen’s human resources and talent acquisition teams, focusing on culture and employee development to ensure the company continues to hire and retain best-in-class talent.

Prior to her appointment, Johnson served as chief people officer at Siprocal, a gaming distribution, monetization and engagement platform. She also holds prior experience in the advertising technology sphere, as senior vice president, human resources director at Aegis Media, acquired by Dentsu; and vice president and group director of talent management at Digitas, the integrated marketing services brand within Publicis Groupe.

Speaking on her own appointment, Johnson said, “This is an exciting time to join Nexxen, with its customer-centric culture where both talent and innovation thrive. I look forward to working closely with the teams here to ensure these values are elevated through strategic HR initiatives.”

Meanwhile, Ofer Druker, chief executive officer at Nexxen, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome Gretchen Johnson to our team. The breadth and depth of her knowledge in orchestrating high-value human resources initiatives will enable us to align our people and organisation with our commercial strategy and execution.”

“Nexxen is the sum of our most valuable assets – our people – and through culture and employee development, Gretchen will help usher our organisation into a new stage of growth,” he added.